# The Truth (podcast)

The Truth was an anthology fiction podcast and founding member of Radiotopia by PRX. Episodes were released about once every two weeks. Several nationally syndicated public radio programs, including This American Life, Studio 360, Snap Judgment, and The Story, featured work by The Truth.
Voice actors who appeared on the show included Jesse Eisenberg, Lauren Adams, Scott Adsit, Craig muMs Grant, Tami Sagher, James Urbaniak, Tom Ligon, Jo Firestone, Tallie Medel, Jackie Hoffman, and F. Murray Abraham.

## History

In 2009, Jonathan Mitchell and Hillary Frank received funding from American Public Media to produce pilot stories together. One of those stories was "Moon Graffiti", which was later featured on The Guardian podcast and won the 2010 Gold Mark Time Award. This story later became the first episode of The Truth.
In December 2011, Ed Herbstman and Mitchell hired a group of improvisors (many from the Magnet Theater, which Herbtsman co-founded) to write stories together, with the goal of producing a story in one month. The first piece was "Interruptible". The group continued working together and eventually reached the podcast's current output of two stories a month.
The Truth was named by iTunes to be the Best New Arts podcast of 2012 and the #1 new podcast of 2012 by The Daily Dot.
The show's title comes from a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures."
The Truth stopped production in 2023 after the episode Pariah.

## Episodes
### 2012

| Date | Episode | Voices |
| November 2, 2012 | Moon Graffiti | Matt Evans, Ed Herbsman, and John Ottavino |
| February 14, 2012 | Eat Cake | Eliza Skinner, Birch Harms, and Curtis Gwinn |
| February 22, 2012 | Movie Mash-Up | |
| June 3, 2012 | Interruptible | Christian Paluck, Chet Siegel, Louis Kornfeld, Amy Warren, Ed Herbstman, Melanie Hoopes, Charlotte Rabbe, and Jamie Rivera |
| March 20, 2012 | They're Made Out of Meat | Russ Armstrong and Miriam Tolan |
| November 4, 2012 | Everybody SCREAM!!!! | Chet Siegel, Emily Tarver, and Ed Herbstman |
| April 25, 2012 | Tape Delay | Ed Herbstman and Tami Sagher, with Libby George and Christian Paluck |
| September 5, 2012 | People Beat | India Kotis, Matt Evans, Melanie Hoopes, Carmen Berkeley, Matt J. Weir, Bryn Magnus, Christian Paluck, Ed Herbstman, and Amy Warren. With Tim Dadabo, Louis Kornfeld, Chet Siegel, Leanne Linsky, Jon Bander, and Kelly Moylan |
| May 23, 2012 | Total Transparency and Eye Contact | Chet Siegel, Ed Herbstman, and Louis Kornfeld |
| June 6, 2012 | In Good Hands (part 1) | Emily Tarver, Alex Marino, Louis Kornfeld, Ed Herbstman, Christian Paluck, and Amy Warren. |
| June 20, 2012 | Human Intelligence | Ed Herbstman, John Ottavino, and Melanie Hoopes |
| December 7, 2012 | In Good Hands (part 2) | Emily Tarver, Alex Marino, Louis Kornfeld, Christian Paluck, Ed Herbstman, Amy Warren, and Ben Jones |
| July 25, 2012 | Lucy and the Bike Girl | |
| September 8, 2012 | Third Party | Ed Herbstman, Chet Siegel, Rick Andrews, Nick Kanellis, Louis Kornfeld, Amy Warren, and Bryn Magnus |
| August 22, 2012 | Machine Men | |
| May 9, 2012 | That's Democracy | Peter McNerney, Russ Armstrong, Alexis Lambright, with Fiona Bradford, Teddy Shivers, Oscar Montoya, and Ben Jones |
| September 19, 2012 | Domestic Violins | Amie McKenna, Michele Durman, Michael Whalley, and Martin Dingle Wall. Produced at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Beyond Radio conference. |
| April 10, 2012 | Do You Have a Minute for Equality? | Chet Siegel and Tom Ligon, with Matt J. Weir, Quentin Loder, and Melanie Hoopes |
| October 18, 2012 | The Death of Poe | Christian Paluck, Ed Herbstman, Chet Siegel, and Louis Kornfeld |
| November 2, 2012 | The Modern Prometheus | Louis Kornfeld, Rachel Hamilton, Tom Ligon, Chet Siegel, Amy Warren, Ed Herbstman, Christian Paluck, and Rupert Degas |
| November 14, 2012 | In Good Hands (rerelease) | |
| November 28, 2012 | Interruptible (rerelease) | Christian Paluck, Chet Siegel, Louis Kornfeld, and Amy Warren. With Ed Herbstman, Melanie Hoopes, Charlotte Rabbe, and Jamie Rivera |
| December 14, 2012 | Mirror Lake | Ed Herbstman, Lauren Ashley Smith, and Louis Kornfeld |

### 2013

| Date | Episode | Voices |
| October 1, 2013 | Happy New Year | Ben Jones and Tom Ligon |
| February 21, 2013 | It's Going to Change Your Life | Kelly Buttermore, Amy Warren, Melanie Hoopes, Louis Kornfeld, Ed Herbstman, and Christian Paluck |
| March 22, 2013 | Where Have You Been? | Ed Herbstman, Ben Jones, Christian Paluck, Chet Siegel, Louis Kornfeld, Amy Warren, and Asher Herbstman |
| April 11, 2013 | Falling | Chet Siegel and Peter McNerney, with Willy Appleman, Louis Kornfeld, Lauren Ashley Smith, Sebastian Conelli, Quinton Loder, Jon Bander, and Kim Ferguson |
| May 10, 2013 | You're Not Alone | Christian Paluck, Carly Monardo, Tom Stephens, Louis Kornfeld, Jon Keller, Kerry Kastin, Nick Mykins, Aina Rapoza, and Ashley Wilson, with musical guest Elizabeth Ziman, singing a song by Daniel Johnston. |
| August 15, 2013 | Fine Dining | Louis Kornfeld, Elana Fishbein, Nick Jaramillo, Tom Ligon, Kevin Cragg, Kerry Kastin, Brian Frange, Bob Kern, and Matt Evans. With improv groups Featherweight and Nurse Practitioner. |
| August 29, 2013 | Sweets for the Cheat | Jon Bander, Alessandro King, Bianca Casusol, Brian Frange, and Elana Fishbein. |
| September 15, 2013 | The Mutiny | Melanie Hoopes. Asher Herbstman, Bea Herbstman, Blanche Ames, Ed Herbstman, Shacottha Fields, and Noel Dinneen |
| September 29, 2013 | Keep Running | Peter McNernery, with Elana Fishbein, Louis Kornfeld, Julia Hynes, and Teddy Shivers |
| October 13, 2013 | The Talk | Christian Paluck, Dmitry Shein, Willy Appelman, and Elana Fishbein |
| October 24, 2013 | The Devil You know | |
| November 11, 2013 | The Memoirist | Elana Fishbein, Matt Antonucci, Kevin Kiernan, Lauren Olson, Alessandro King, Sebastian Connelli, Blanche Ames, Kevin Cragg, and Michael Kroll |
| November 25, 2013 | Tough Crowd | Alejandro Kolleeny, Annemarie Cullen, Devin O'Neill, Megan Gray, Noel Dinneen, Maddy Mako, Matt Shafeek, Shacottha Fields, Louis Kornfeld, and Elana Fishbein |
| December 10, 2013 | Naomi's World | Isabel Frohnhofer, Tom Ligon, Elana Fishbein, Imran Chowdhury, Laura Parker, Philipp Goedicke, Dennis Pacheco, Blanche Ames, Ron Palais, Willy Appelman, Andrew Yurman-Glaser, and Phoebe Tyers |
| December 20, 2013 | Biological Clock | Tami Sagher, Ed Herbstman, Louis Kornfeld, and Kerry Kastin |

### 2014

| Date | Episode | Voices |
| January 25, 2014 | It's Your Funeral | Andy Moskowitz, Jackie Hoffman, Ben Jones, Damon Ketron, Phoebe Tyres, Shacottha Fields, Blanche Ames, Amy Warren, and Rebecca Robles |
| March 10, 2014 | The Extractor | Ed Herbstman, Kevin Cragg, Annemarie Cullen, Dennis Pacheco, and Rebecca Robles. With Melanie Hoopes, Bea Herbstman, Alex Marino, and Kerry Kastin. |
| March 30, 2014 | Jeff Gets Towed | Andrew Yurman-Glaser, Sebastian Conelli, and Phoebe Tyers |
| April 15, 2014 | Interns | Maggie Morris as Melanie, and Emily Shapiro as Annalyse. With Willy Appelman, Dennis Pacheco, Elana Fishbein, and Louis Kornfeld |
| May 14, 2014 | Voyager Found | Chet Siegel and Peter McNerney |
| May 28, 2014 | The Penis Museum | Phoebe Tyers and Damon Ketron. With Elana Fishbein, Alejandro Kolleeny, Kerry Kastin, and Ira Gamerman. |
| June 18, 2014 | Chaotic Neutral | Elana Fishbein, Jon Bander, Justin Moran, and Matt Shafeek |
| September 17, 2014 | Cold Read | Alex Marino, Christina Dabney, Blanche Ames, and T.J. Mannix |
| October 15, 2014 | Silvia's Blood | Andy Moskowitz, Rebecca Robles, Diana McCorry, Ben Jones, and Al King |
| November 12, 2014 | Return of the Extractor | Ed Herbstman and Elana Fishbein. With Louis Kornfeld and Alejandro Kolleeny |
| November 26, 2014 | Sketchballs | Rosie Whalen and Chris Dwane, with Louis Kornfeld |
| December 18, 2014 | Naughty or Nice | Seth Lind, Elana Fishbein, Louis Kornfeld, Eli Itzkowitz, Ed Herbstman, Shaina Feinberg, Tom Ligon, Kevin Cragg, Willy Appelman, Kerry Kastin, Katie Corr, Phoebe Tyers, Pat May, Olivia Simonson, Asher Herbstman, Bee Herbstman, Melanie Hoopes, and Gregory C. Jones |

### 2015

| Date | Episode | Voices |
| January 15, 2015 | The One about the Dead Dog | Phoebe Tyers and Dennis Pacheco, with Nick Mykins, T.J. Mannix, and Chris Dwane |
| February 11, 2015 | Don't Touch a Thing | Amy Warren, Armando Diaz, Jackie Hoffman, Louis Kornfeld, and Noel Dinneen |
| March 12, 2015 | Living the Dream | Adam Wade, Chrissie Gruebel, Dan Fairall, and Blanche Ames |
| March 26, 2015 | Joe Frank | Mark Hammer, Barbara Sohmers, Carolyn Swift Hammer, Arthur Miller, F. Murray Abraham, Annalee Jefferies, Eric Seers, and Paul Mantell |
| April 8, 2015 | Can You Help Me Find My Mom? | Bee Herbstman, Melanie Hoopes, Ed Herbstman, Evan Sudarsky Abadi, Gregory C. Jones and Blanche Ames |
| May 20, 2015 | The Last Job | Peter McNerney, Louis Kornfeld, Rebecca Robles, India Kotis, Dave Hill, Alex Marino, Phoebe Tyers, Rupert Degas, and T.J. Mannix |
| June 4, 2015 | Remember the Baby | Ann Carr, Louis Kornfeld, and Amy Warren |
| July 16, 2015 | Dark Matter | Kevin Corrigan, Chet Siegel, Ed Herbstman, Dennis Pacheco, Alexis Lambright, Anna Sale, and Rob Webber |
| September 10, 2015 | Enjoy the Suffering | Bianca Casusol, Kate Emswiler, Louis Kornfield, Jake Hart, Blance Ames, Jimmy O'Connell, and Kerry Kastin |
| September 24, 2015 | Tuesday | Anni Ginsterer, Belinda Jombwe, Rupert Reid, and Rahel Romahn |
| October 23, 2015 | Starburst | Matt Antonucci, Angela DeManti, Kerry Kastin, Alejandro Kolleeny, and Louis Kornfeld |
| December 16, 2015 | Santa for President | Tom Ligon, Rachel Dratch, Russell G. Jones, Connie Ray, Shaina Feinberg, Willy Appelman, Jo Firestone, Phoebe Tyers, Mo Rocca, Helen Coxe, T.J. Mannix, Lauren Ashley Smith, Bill Rohlfing, Mario Correa, Kerry kastin, Louis Kornfeld, and Benjamin Correa |

### 2016

| Date | Episode | Voices |
| January 15, 2016 | Call of Dating & The Big Prawn | "Call of Dating" is performed by Clair Galea and Dennis John Cahill. "The Big Prawn" is performed by Katia Pase. |
| February 12, 2016 | Visible & Drive Straight Ahead | "Visible" is performed by Russell G. Jones, Rachel Hamilton, Ann Carr, and Kerry Kastin. |
| March 9, 2016 | Man V. Nature | David Pasquesi, Ed Herbstman, and Mark Gessner. |
| April 14, 2016 | Songonauts (Episode One) | Jonathan Mann, Elena Skopetos, Bianca Casusol, Tom Ligon, Louis Kornfeld, Jimmy O'Connell, Amy Warren, and Dan Fairall |
| May 12, 2016 | The Man in the Barn | Sarah Reynolds, Joe Mullins, Maeve McGrath, Diarmuid McIntyre, and Louis Kornfeld |
| June 9, 2016 | Songonauts (Episode Two) | Jonathan Mann, Elena Skopetos, Bianca Casusol, Tom Ligon, Louis Kornfeld, Jimmy O'Connell, Amy Warren, and Dan Fairall |
| July 13, 2016 | The Making of That's Democracy | |
| September 7, 2016 | Sleep Some More | Brian Miskell, Mark Gessner, Lusia Strus, and Hannah Chase |
| October 12, 2016 | Cor-wrong-ct! | Peter McNerney, Lane Kwederis, Alessandro King, Scott Adsit, Laura Grey, Ed Herbstman, Tami Sagher, April Matthis, Becca Schall, Willy Appelman, Louis Kornfield, Tom Ligon, and Blanche Ames |
| November 10, 2016 | Commentary Track | Birgit Huppuch, Libby Woodbridge, and Maurice Jones |
| December 7, 2016 | Naughty or Nice | Seth Lind, Elana Fishbein, Louis Kornfeld, Eli Itzkowitz, Ed Herbstman, Shaina Feinberg, Tom Ligon, Kevin Cragg, Willy Appelman, Kerry Kastin, Katie Corr, Phoebe Tyers, Pat May, Olivia Simonson, Asher Herbstman, Bee Herbstman, Melanie Hoopes, and Gregory Jones |
| December 22, 2016 | The Sweet Music of Friction | Khalil Kain, Craig muMs Grant, Keith Randolph Smith, Shamika Cotton, Chris McKinney, Louis Kornfeld, Jaymes Jorsling |

### 2017

| Date | Episode | Voices |
| January 11, 2017 | The Dark End of the Mall | Lauren Adams and Peter Grosz |
| January 25, 2017 | Ice Music (re-release) & Mirror Lake | Gregory Whithead; Ed Herbstman and Lauren Ashley Smith with Louis Kornfeld |
| February 9, 2017 | A Drop in the Ocean | Gregory Jones, Chris McKinney, Russell G. Jones, Billy Griffin Jr., Reynaldo Piniella, and Michael Cullen, with the Magnet Theater improv team Eagelfox. |
| February 22, 2017 | Bloodless | James Urbaniak |
| March 8, 2017 | Miracle on the L Train | Joanna Hausmann, T.J. Mannix, Christina Dabney, Philip Godicke, Rachel Rauch, Shacottha Fields, Suni Reyes, Lou Gonzalez, Louis Kornfeld, Adam Twitchell, Will Quinn, Leonard Lyzner, Joe Lepore, Dennis Pacheco, and Andrew Vuilleumier |
| March 23, 2017 | Scavenger Hunt | Rebecca Robles and Louis Kornfeld |
| April 13, 2017 | Hey Bumblebee | Alexis Pereira, Elana Fishbein, Michael Delisle, Kelsey Bailey, Anna Neu, Angela DeManti, Matt Shafeek, Becca Schall, Ed Herbstman, Hannah Chase, Dennis Pacheco, and Bill Rohlfing |
| April 26, 2017 | Intimacy Challenge | Leonard Lyzner, Florencia de la Lorca, Russell G. Jones, Gillian Glasco, Lipica Shah, and Jordan Mahome |
| May 10, 2017 | Do the Voice | Erica Schroeder, Brian Dykstra, Marc Thompson, Justin Morgan, Rosie Whalen, Susan J. Jacks, Chris Kipiniak, Lorena Russi, Eric Molinsky, Kerry Kastin, Asher Herbstman, and Rob Webber |
| June 29, 2017 | Influencers (Part I of II) | Michael Delisle, Ann Carr, T.J. Mannix, Michael Cullen, Chris McKinney, Will Quinn, Becca Schall, Louis Kornfeld, Chris Kipiniak, and Kerry Kastin |
| September 13, 2017 | Possible Side Effects | Adam Wade, Hannah Chase, Mariette Strauss, Elana Fishbein, Dennis Pacheco, Anne Antonucci, Jeremy Bent, Noel Dinneen, and Seth Lind |
| September 27, 2017 | Brain Chemistry | Scott Adsit, Amy Warren, Ed Herbstman, Anna Neu, Billy Griffin Jr., Alexis Lambright, Louis Kornfeld, Elana Fishbein, Joanna Hausmann, and Kerry Kastin |
| October 11, 2017 | Magic Hugs | Austin Pendleton, April Matthis, Jenny Lee Mitchell, Becca Schall, Kevin Cobbs, Louis Kornfeld, Chris Kipiniak, Kerry Kastin, Kate Chapman, T.J. Mannix, and Phoebe Tyers |
| October 25, 2017 | The Decider | Tallie Medel, Tim Platt, and Kelsey Bailey |
| November 11, 2017 | Game Night | Bill Rohlfing, Adelaide Kipiniak, Max Kipiniak, Brandi Varnel, Margaret Burrus, Kelsey Bailey, Jack Frederick, Jimmy O'Connell, Leonard Lyzner, Willy Appelman, Ariel Gitlin, Richie Moriarty, Lila Newman, Elana Fishbein, Suni Reyes, Dennis Pacheco, Andy Moskowitz |
| November 23, 2017 | Troll | Abby Royle, Kyle Gordon, Ashlie Atkinson, Jennete Cronk, Jaymes Jorsling, Kerry Kastin, Chris Kipiniak, Becca Schall, Lila Newman, Louis Kornfeld, and Matt Shafeek |
| December 13, 2017 | Mall Santa | Tom Ligon, Chris Dwane, Anna Neu, Bianca Casusol, Jimmy O'Connell, Kevin Cobbs, Louis Kornfeld, Kerry Kastin, Becca Schall |

### 2018

| Date | Episode | Voices |
| January 31, 2018 | The Co-op | Hannah Chase, Dennis Pacheco, Amy Warren, Susan Owen, Betty Hudson, Joel Bernstein, Michael Cullen, and Sam Tsoutsouvas |
| February 14, 2018 | Nuclear Winter | Woody Fu, Danielle Delgado, and Billy Griffin, Jr. |
| February 28, 2018 | Rideshare | Dana Kaplan-Angle, Amir Darvish, and Boris Khaykin |
| March 21, 2018 | The Hilly Earth Society | Michael Cullen |
| April 5, 2018 | The Runaways | Jenny Mudge and Chris Henry-Coffey |
| April 19, 2018 | Justice Battalion | Jake Hart, Marc Thompson, Erica Schroeder, Billy Bob Thompson, and Graham Rowat |
| May 10, 2018 | The Matter of Tyco | Lila Newman, Erica Hernandez, Fred Newman, Joel Bernstein, Jack Frederick, Jeff Wucher, Kyle Gordon, Davy Gardner, and Margaret Burrus |
| June 7, 2018 | The Jesse Eisenberg Effect | Jesse Eisenberg, Keith Rubin, Jaymes Jorsling, Jeremy Bent, Lenny Thomas, Jeff Wucher, and Jonathan Mitchell |
| June 20, 2018 | Fish Girl | Bee Herbstman, Alison Cimmet, Scott Richardson, and Ed Herbstman |
| July 12, 2018 | Wonderworld, U.S.A. | Taylor Dalton Curtis, Federico Rodriguez, Sam Tsoutsouvas, Lila Newman, Chris Kipiniak, Peter McNerney, Molly Kiernan, Davy Gardner, John Ross, Kyle Gordon, Anthony Sneed, Dennis Pacheko, Phoebe Tyers, Becca Schall, Matt Whitfield, Amy Warren, Marisa Brau, Mike Cabellon, Rick Andrews, and Louis Kornfeld |

## Awards

| Year | Award | Episode |
| 2010 | Mark Time Gold Award | "Moon Graffiti" |
| 2010 | PRX Zeitfunk Award 2010 for Most Listened-to Piece | "Moon Graffiti" |
| 2013 | Mark Time Gold Award | "The Modern Prometheus" |
| 2013 | Ogle Silver Award | "In Good Hands" |
| 2013 | Ogle Silver Award | "That's Democracy" |